Week 2 - IDK? 3/30/11

 Thank you from Brian and Janet for all of you sharing in our missionary adventures.  We love and appreciate your support.

Today marks the end of something like four weeks in the MTC! It{s
absolutely crazy! Since I didn't get to finish all of my last week,
I'll start off somewhere around Tuesday and hope nothing overlaps. On
Tuesday night we had a devotional from Elder Falabella, a member of
the 1st Quorom of the 70 in Spanish and I understood almost all of it!
I was super proud of myself! Life has changed so much in just two
short weeks in Guatemala! But, change is only progression, which is a
comforting thought! So, during personal study a couple days last week
I was studying the first few chapters of Mosiah and comparing King
Benjamin to Christ. They had a lot in common! The scriptures become so
much more... intriguing when you have something specific you are doing
or looking for, and you can ALWAYS compare the prophets to Christ, or
a lot of the missionaries, in some aspect or another and learn
something incredible. Last week, on Tuesday, we also had a teaching
experience similar to what the TRC is in Provo. Here it's called CRE.
We were teaching this "80" year old man named Daniel and he doesn{t
agree with our version of prayer, he only repeats the Lord's Prayer as
found in Matthew. However, we were able to teach him, really guide
him, to an understanding of how to pray, and why, through the power of
the Holy Ghost. It was really powerful! P-day a week ago we went to
the temple. The temple in Guatemala is literally right next to the
CCM, I don't know if I mentioned that yet or not? I can see it out of
my Window. I wrote this in a letter to a friend last week, but it's
kind of nice going to bed knowing that you have an angel watching over
you (Angel Moroni looks more or less in the general direction of my
bedroom window, and I sleep closest to the window). Anyways, the
temple here is really small, but the rooms are very beautiful! The
room we spent the majority of our time in was very small, but very
pretty. I wish I could really describe it and show you a picture, but
it's nothing like any temple I've been in up until this point, but not
my favorite. Luckily, the session was in English, so that was a
relief! Although I could hopefully understand about 50% of it if it
were in Spanish... Ojalá(hopefully).
    Oh, last week, my latino companion, Elder Hernandez, was really
upset on Wednesday night. His parents are divorced and he doesn't have
a relationship with his mom, but when he got into the CCM, he wrote
her an e-mail. Unfortunately, she hasn't written him back yet and it
was really hard on him, especially because he is doing everything he
can to have a relationship with her. Anyway, because he was so upset,
I offered to give him a blessing, so Elder Willardson and I went and
gave him a blessing, but in English, because I can't do it in Spanish
yet. Elder Hernandez doesn't speak English, and I can't do it in
Spanish, but the Holy Ghost speaks both fluently, and I know that
Elder Hernandez felt the comforting power of the Holy Ghost, and I was
able to, more or less, explain what I said in the blessing to him. I
love Elder Hernandez so much!      I think I might have mentioned this
last week, but after this week, I may be moving out of my district to
be with a Latino companion 24/7, rather than just during sports,
meals, etc. I am really nervous about it! My Spanish is satisfactory
to mostly get along, but it's really hard to change companionships and
districts so much, and I feel like I could maybe be more help if I
stayed in my current district, but I don't know. Fortunately, the Lord
does and whatever happens will be for the most benefit.
    On Saturday night, while we were teaching one of the teachers,
well, another companionship was, we were all sharing spiritual
thoughts and experiences and one of the sisters in our district shared
a poem titled "The Fellowship of the Unashamed". It is absolutely
phenomanal and I suggest that you all search it and read it! There is
also a talk titled "Jesus: The Perfect Leader" by Spencer W. Kimball
that is also fantastic and everyone should read that as well. I am
trying to implement the teachings from this talk into my leadership as
a Zone Leader (which really isn't that much in the CCM). GAH! I'm
running out of time!
      Before my time runs out, I really want to talk about what
happened on Monday! We got to go out proselyting! Ok, Awesome, I
figured out how to get new paragraphs and I have two minutes to write
about the proselyting. It was absolutely incredible! I went out with
my Latino companion, Elder Hernandez, and we went walking around the
area to talk to people about the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. We
were out for about an hour and a half and talked to 5 people, but
placed 1 B.o.M. What if that Book of Mormon, to Enrique, becomes the
first book of Mormon that Enrique, a future member, ever received. We
went out again in the afternoon and only made 2 contacts, but they
were really good contacts and we placed a Book of Mormon with each of
them! I sincerely hope they read it and find out for the themselves
that the Libro de Mormon is true, because I KNOW it is true. Love,
Elder LaPray

FIRST LETTER FROM GUATEMALA - MTC

1 in the CCM, Week 4 of a Mission!...

From:	Andrew LaPray <andrew.lapray@myldsmail.net> ... View Contact
To:	bjlapray@yahoo.com

---

Mission life in Guatemala is great! Well... MTC, CCM, life is great! I finally know what CCM stands for! Centro de Capacitación de Misioneros or Center for the Teaching of Missionaries (That´s a loose translation of Capacitación). I´m still trying to get used to these Guatemalan keyboards, some of the stuff is in a totally different place! I don{t even know how to start a new paragraph because the enter key doesn´t take it to a new line, and neither does tab. Bytheway, if you see { where you think there should really be ´ it´s because that{s where the apostrophe is supposed to be in my head, but it´s really not and sometimes I{m too lazy to go back and change it, like right there.    New paragraph. The flight to Guatemala was routine, nothing there. When we were stopped in L.A. we went and grabbed some food at McDonald´s and there was a teacher from BYUH there and so he went up to Elder White - the 6´9 elder, and gave him 20 bucks to help pay for our dinner... we didn´t realize that we weren't supposed to accept that money... oops. But it covered the cost of dinner for 3!  I was really tired when we got here to Guatemala! I didn´t get a whole lot of sleep on the 4 hour flight from LA to Guatemala, but I got at least 2 hours... and to top it all off I felt sick (stupid acid reflux!) But we got our luggage and things went off without a hitch. New Paragraph.     Driving through the city was nothing like anything I imagined! I expected it to be pretty similar-ish to Nevis... nope. There were soldiers all over the place, as guards, with machine guns! They were rocking M16s and AK-47s. That was pretty scary. And the CCM has guards too! but they only rock sidearm pistols, not nearly as cool. Anyways, we got to the CCM somewhere around 7ish maybe and after we got everything figured out and went up to our rooms, they let us sleep for a couple hours before things got started and I was THRILLED, because sleep almost always helps with my acid reflux! So I slept until probably 9 or 9:30 and then got dressed and what not for the day. New Paragraph.    We got the lowdown of how things are in the CCM, then I think someone else met with us, and then we had lunch, and then we went to class... I think? Hey, I just found the good version of the apostrophe! It's on the same key as the question mark. Sweet! We have 3 teachers here and they are all Guatemalans... Hna. Ayala 2 (her twin is Hna. Ayala 1) and she served in Ohio, Hna. España and she served in Nicaragua, and Hna. Ibañez and she is only sort of a teacher, more like a guide for when we translate lessons and write talks in Spanish. My companions here are Elder Willardson, from San Diego, and Elder Heaps, from St. George, I'm in a trio here. They are both learning Spanish pretty quickly. We all have Latino companions as well. My latino companion is Elder Hernández from El Salverdor. He's <tan chilero> (way cool). He was a dance teacher in El Salv. The first day I didn't understand a whole lot of what he said, but now I understand him probably 80-95% of the time, it's fantastic! He's 19 and comes from a member family. I absolutely love Elder Hernandez. I'll read you what I wrote about him in my journal last night ''I really love my Latino companion, Elder Hernandez. He is a great example to me of a representative of Jesus christ. He is always willing to do what is aksed of him, things that are't asked of him, and I feel like he is truly filled with the pure love of Christ, to help everyone no matter what he might sacrifice'' Elder Hernandez is wonderful! and after the first day, he gave me a present, a toy from El Salvador that I'm working on getting good at the game! There's another really great Latino here named Elder Barrera. He is from El Salvador too. He speaks English pretty fluently and he is way awesome! He is probably one of my best friends here in the MTC, he's great. AH!!! I only have 4 minutes left and I've only written about the first 2 days! We have a lot more opportunities to teach people in the CCM. I'm pretty sure I've taught over 8 lessons in less than a week here, it{s great practice for me! Oh, another way cool thing about the CCM, we have snack time every night! It's called <refacción> and I love it! Crap, 2 minutes! I love teaching experiences and feeling the spirit! Gah!!! Time is running out so quickly! I{ll try to sum it up really quickly! My companion Elder Willardson and I got made zone leaders over the two new Norte districts that came (two districs came to Guatemala when we came. Okay, less than one minute, I'm sorry. I love you all and I miss you! I have so much more I want to write about but it will happen next week! I love you. Love Elder LaPray. Don't forget to post this to my blog!

Provo MTC departure day - Tues. March 15, 2011

Hey Friends and Family!

It's crazy to think that this is my last day in the US for roughly 2 years!  It's like moving to the Caribbean all over, but this time I don't have my family to go with me!  I'm kind of nervous and scared, but I'm also really excited!  We listened to a talk Elder Holland gave at the MTC in 2000 and he said some pretty amazing things.  I want my mission experience to mean everything to me, and I know if I 'm obedient and serve with all I can give, it will be exactly that.  He also said there is nothing more important that we could be doing, period, and that really struck me as well.  When you think of the hundreds of things a 19 year old man could do, none of them are more important (unless it's taking care of your family or something like that I suppose.)  A quote from somebody comes to my mind "I never promised it'd be easy, but it will be worth it."  Life in the MTC isn't easy, and the field will be even harder, but it will be worth it.

Things with my companion have remained as a roller coaster.  The great thing about roller coasters though, they eventually will go up and then back down.  Last week Elder Bennion and I were teaching our progressive investigator (our teacher with the personality of someone he taught on his mission) and it was incredible!  My companion and I had a small argument and didn't talk for 30 minutes, and then we had to teach Frank (the progressive investigator.)  After the first 2 minutes, nothing we said dame from our lesson plan.  Everything was guided by the Spirit.  It was just a role play, but in the MTC we call them "real plays."  We invited Frank to pray, right at that moment, to know if Joseph Smith was a prophet, if the Book of Mormon is true, and that the things we were teaching him are true.  We knelt down with our teacher in a role play, with the rest of our district watching behind a one way mirror.

The Spirit of God WILL manifest the truth of all things.  Always, period.  In that classroom, kneeling down, "Frank" offered a prayer to our Heavenly Father.  During the prayer I didn't feel a single thing.  Neither did Frank, but after the prayer, I was filled by the Holy Ghost.  I received a witness that these things are true, and so did Frank.  It's not a role play, it's a real play.  Frank received the same answer, I know because I asked Frank.   My teacher, Hermano Sparks didn't lie.  He really did feel the Holy Ghost witness to him that these things are true.  It was incredible!  Even if you already know, I challenge you to pray to God, the Eternal Father, with real intent, to know that the Book of Mormon is true and I promise you that you will receive an answer.

I love you all and I'm excited for this work!  Love, Elder Andrew LaPray

Provo MTC

                                      Andrew and Colton with Grandma and Grandpa Anderson

 

First Letter

I've almost made it an entire week in the MTC! The first day was very overwhelming and a very different environment than what I am used to, but it was good. I saw Colton (Elder Llewelyn) when we got dropped off and I didn't see him again until Sunday night. It was crazy.

 

My first companion's name is Elder Call. He is from Syracuse, UT and he was going to Honduras. For various reasons things changed between Wednesday and Friday night and I now have a new companion, Elder Bennion (he was already in my district as part of a trio). He is a convert of only a year! and he is from Vancouver, WA. He's a nice guy. We have our challenges as companions, but we are doing our best to work through them and work together.

 

My teachers here are great! They are Hermano (Hno.) Sparks and Hermana (Hna.) Staib. Hno. Sparks is from Shelley! Which is really cool, and he served his mission in Mexico. Hno. Sparks and I get along really well and I am learning a lot from him! Hna. Staib is from Alpine, UT. She got her mission call to Mongolia, but her district had problems with their visas and she got reassigned to Colorado (obviously Spanish speaking, since she is my teacher).

 

We learn everything so quickly here and I love it! On the very first day I could already say a VERY simple prayer in Spanish and now I can give a much more varied prayer, it's wonderful! We've had a lot of opportunities to learn how to teach in English, and in Spanish, as well as good studying ideas. I'm trying to write down everything and remember everything, but it's hard to do it all in a day!

 

Waking up at 6:30 is killing me! even though I go to sleep on time, at 10:30! 8 hours just isn't enough sleep for a 19 year old boy from Idaho! We need a good 9-10 hours. But, I'm trying my best to be obedient in all things, no matter what my opinion of the rules. Generally, I agree with most of the rules and can abide by them, but some of them I don't personally understand and do anyway, just because we're asked to do them!

 

Church on Sunday was FANTASTIC! The first half of Sacrament meeting was in Spanish. I understood a lot of what the talks were about. The talks were all really good, obviously. In Priesthood meeting we talked about the Law of Chastity, and it finally wasn't an awkward lesson! I learned a lot about how to teach the law of Chastity so that others understand exactly what we believe in the law of Chastity. After that we had a new District Orientation meeting with one of the Branch Presidency Counselors, Brother Jurgens. He is really funny, I love our presidency a lot! That night we had a really great fireside by Brother Stephen Allen, a managing something from the MTC, about trials/turbulence. It was spiritually uplifting and helped us understand how to cope with, learn from, and grow from our trials.

 

After the fireside we had the opportunity to watch the newest Joseph Smith movie. It is absolutely fantastic! I don't know how anyone could doubt the divine calling of Joseph Smith and the truth of this gospel after watching that video, you can feel the Spirit so strongly!

 

As difficult as being a missionary is, and as physically, emotionally, and spiritually demanding it is, I absolutely love it! There is no other place I would rather be! I know that this Church is true. I know that Joseph Smith restored the Gospel of Jesus Christ on the earth today, and it is the church which contains the Gospel of Jesus Christ in its entirety. I have a testimony of the Restoration of this Gospel and of the Plan of Salvation. Jesus is the Christ and I am trying to invite all to come unto Christ, through faith in Jesus Christ and His Atonement, Repentence, Baptism, Receiving the Gift of the Holy Ghost, and Enduring to the end. OR, in Spanish <Invitar a todas a venir a Cristo, mediante la fe in Jesucristo y su expiacion, el arrepentimiento, el bautismo, la recepcion del don del Espiritu Santo, y el perseverar hasta el fin. I promise that as we come unto Christ and believe on his name, we can feel our Savior's love, our Father in Heaven's love, and the presence of the Holy Ghost in our lives.

 

Love,

Elder Andrew A. LaPray

                                                      Andrew and Colton on the first day

 

Second Letter

Dear Family! and Friends!

 

I talked to President Brown with Colton last week! It was a really cool experience!

 

To everyone who sent me letters/emails this week on Dear Elder, THANK YOU! I sent out letters this afternoon back to you! If you're going to right me back, be sure to do it before 4 pm on Monday, the 14th, or I won't get it before I leave for Guatemala.

 

This last week went by way faster than the first one! I only have on week left from today before I'm headed to Guatemala! My flight is at 9:45 pm on the 15th! It is crazy soon!

 

We did our first lesson in the TRC last week! I think it went pretty well, but we did it in english, so it wasn't hard. Random insert, but I don't want to forget. Yesterday we had a district from our zone leave and I had gotten close to a few of them so it was kind of hard to say goodbye. There were some really cool guys! They'll be great missionaries though!

 

I'm getting better at falling asleep with Elder White's snoring, but it's probably because I wear ear plugs, but I can still hear him! He snores crazy loud! But I love him!

 

Elder Bennion and i had more ups and downs this week, but this time they went higher and lower than before, big changes in moods! It makes working together very hard sometimes! But we're both trying our hardest to get along.

 

The longer I'm in here, the faster time is going, it's wonderful! I can't wait to get to Guatemala and learn more! and start teaching, although I'm no where near ready! I know I can do all things with the help of the Lord! Philippians 4:13

 

I love you all!

Elder Andrew A. LaPray